Poster designs by Bráulio Amado for the Good Room and Mohammed Fayaz for Papi Juice (image courtesy MAD)

Nightlife may be a form of revelry and rejoicing, but it can also be political. “Nightlife offers a magic circle, a safe space in the shadows beneath the dazzling light of the disco balls,” Hyperallergic contributor Alexander Cavaluzzo wrote in a review of the 2015 exhibition Party Out of Bounds: Nightlife as Activism Since 1980. “It is an escape, a membrane surrounding the politics of oppression that bombard us in our daily lives.”

Panelists on Thursday night, June 15, at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) will explore this phenomenon — the way that dance clubs have historically been home to “nonconformist communities” — through the lens of design. Three speakers will present on how they use design to attract their audiences: Bráulio Amado, a graphic designer, illustrator, and part of the monthly gay party OWL; Oscar Nñ, a DJ and co-founder of Papi Juice, a monthly dance party for queer and trans people of color; and Mohammed Fayaz, an illustrator and organizer of Papi Juice. Afterwards, Isabelia Herrera, the music editor of Remezcla, will moderate a discussion with the group. Part of an ongoing collaboration between MAD and the New York chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design, the event should have you seeing party posters in a new light.